Deeplinks Blog posts about Cyber Security Legislation

As if “national security” weren’t enough, now Congress is trying to use “cybersecurity” as an excuse to chip away at our right to privacy—and it’s riding on the coattails of incidents like the Experian and OPM breaches. Once again for continuity, it bears repeating that the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) would not have stopped the recent high-profile security breaches.

Today a wide range of organizations from across the political spectrum—including EFF—sent a letter to the Senate protesting Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's proposed draconian Computer Fraud and Abuse Act amendment to the "cybersecurity" surveillance bill CISA.

Since the death of activist and Internet pioneer Aaron Swartz three years ago, people from across the political spectrum have urged Congress to reform the CFAA, given its harsh penalties for "crimes" that result in little or no economic harm as well as the Justice Department's interpretation of terms of use violations that leaves virtually every Internet user a criminal.

Although grassroots activism has dealt it a blow, the Senate Intelligence Committee's terrible bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Act(CISA) keeps shambling along like the zombie it is. In July, Senator McConnell vowed to hold a final vote on the bill before Congress left for its six-week long summer vacation. In response, EFF and over 20 other privacy groups ran a successful Week of Action, which included sending over 6 million faxes in opposition to CISA, causing the Senate to postpone the vote until late September.

Right before Congress left for its annual summer vacation the Obama Administration endorsed the Senate Intelligence Committee's Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). EFF opposes the bill because its vague definitions, broad legal immunity, and new spying powers allow for a tremendous amount of unnecessary damage to users' privacy. Just last week the Department of Homeland Security agreed and criticized CISPA for its lack of privacy protections. More importantly, CISA fails to address the causes of the recent highly publicized data breaches.